NathanR

What??? Seriously? I just can't believe this, it makes no sense. The set is clearly popular, judging by the speed with which it sells out and the number of people who seem to be struggling to find a copy they can buy. I know the hype won't last forever, but Lego keeping this set in production is surely like printing their own money... Also a shelf life of just six months is simply ridiculous (assuming it does indeed make it to Christmas, which the article kind of implies it won't). Ok, I got my Saturn V on the day of release, but in general I feel I've missed out on a fair few sets, it's like they disappear before I've had a chance to get the money together to buy them, and then come back on the aftermarket at triple the price. Am I the only one who thinks the shelf life of Lego products is getting too short?

As I recall the 10179 boxed weight was 12kg... I can easily see this new falcon weighing more... I've gotta say I like the wheels on the box. Is this just a joke, or are they seriously going to ship it like that? Also, any chance of a Lego shopping trolley like that? As trundling round the shops with something like that might be fun....

Ah, photobucket strikes again... For what it's worth, brickstuff do a fantastic looking lighting set. I've been considering buying for a while, but it is quite expensive...

I have a long term project of “refreshing” all of the UCS sets, so that any unique or rare parts are replaced with modern and readily available alternatives. I initially dismissed 7194 as impossible due to the use of sand green bricks for Yoda’s skin. Many parts were virtually unique to the set, and the much sought-after 3450 Statue of Liberty (the only other major sand green parts pack) had driven the prices of even used bricks to an insane high. I tried changing the skin to Olive Green but the limited parts selection and the lack of snot bricks made this impossible. I was about to give up entirely, when I saw the beautiful 70612 Ninjago Movie Green Ninja Mech Dragon. Featuring sand green 2x2, 2x3 and 2x6 plates, and with other 1x4, 1x3 and 1x2 plates available from various sets released in the last couple of years, I thought I might just be able to pull this off. I did. The original set was released in 2002 and contained 1075 parts. Unusually for a UCS set, there was no formal "ultimate collector series" name on the box, and no plaque to accompany the model. My update preserves the look of the original and weighs in at 1202 pieces. The head has been completely redesigned - it is visually identical to the original, but it uses a completely different selection of pieces drawn from the current palette of sand green parts. A few rare sand green parts have unfortunately had to be left in: 1x1 plates haven’t been seen in sand green since 2004, but I got the number down from 33 to 11, 2x2 corner plates, last seen in 2011, I got the number down from 78 to 4. The remaining ones serve a structural purpose and cannot be removed. I also had to leave in the 2x2 plates with rails to preserve Yoda’s ridged noise and mouth. These were last seen in the 2014 set 10241 Maersk Line Triple-E, which is a collectible set but the part is at least relatively easy to get. The body is largely unchanged, except that the dark orange bricks have been replaced with more readily available bricks (mainly 1x2 and 1x6). To allow these changes, the model introduces a few extra structural parts (shown here in bright yellow). These are not visible from the outside and any available colour can be used; my preference is for dark bluish grey. It should also be noted that the old greys used in this set have been updated to the modern bluish greys, and the old brown used for Yoda’s walking stick has been changed to the modern reddish brown. You can view this model on mecabricks, and download the LDD file from bricksafe. I haven't made an instruction manual since these brick built sculptures don't seem to be very popular amongst the fans, but Ill put one together if there's enough interest. Disclaimer: This is a digital MOC/MOD of the 7194, and has not been tested in real life with real bricks. While every effort has been made to ensure that the bricks would interlock securely, this may not always be the case and the final assembly may turn out to be very fragile.

Also, badly photoshopped....I mean, you can see the Death Star through the radar dish!

That's because everyone thinks the same and is panic-buying. Lego made an announcement that they'll be making more, and sets would be available throughout 2018. Taking data from brickset.com, other ideas sets have had lifespans such as : Back to the Future (01 Aug 13 - 30 Dec 14), Wall-E (25 Sep 15 - 20 Nov 16), Dr Who (02 Dec 15 - 20 Nov 16). So it's reasonable to expect an 18 month window of availability (i.e. Saturn V gets discontinued by end of December 2018). I grant you it's annoying to have to wait for it to be in stock, but I wouldn't be worried just yet.

I think the Falcon doesn't go on sale until 14th September. Lego aren't daft... But 3x vip points... Oooh my wallet could be very empty by the end of that day!

Wow. Just... just wow! What a way to make an entrance.... How do you even begin planning something this size? This is totally awesome, it already looks amazingly detailed, and I love that it lights up! Oh, and welcome too eurobricks...

I dunno, they came pretty close to nailing it on the old one. This is certainly an impressive model, and the greebling is amazing, but there's something about it I don't like, and I just can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's the number of exposed studs, but parts of it don't look like a Lego model to me... Beneath the greebles, some of the main panelling looks the same as the old version, also the reuse of the light grey boat rigging for the engines. Some parts have had a revamp like the curved walls for the cockpit and access corridor. But I can see the greebles really eating up the piece count. For example, on the back the small triangular fins are brick built (more parts than the old one), the light grey levers are now binoculars + 2 light sabre blades + mounting stud. The circular vents on the saucer are tiled with 1x2 grille pieces instead of the simple 6x6 webbed dish used on the original. I could see maybe a thousand of the new pieces going on the extra greebles alone, or elements like the cockpit where a few angled plates now become dozens of curved bricks. An interior would be fantastic, but is there going to be any parts budget left for this? And could the internal frame be modified to allow any kind of interior? (I've seen Mocs that did this, but could it be done to the standard needed in an official set?)

I love this set, and will definitely be getting it to go with the train. The station itself is a good size, fitting on two straights (so the other two, with the crossing, can make a complete loop with the track from the train), and it looks like the kind of small train station you find in a little village. There are some lovely details - did you see on the designer video, the timetable for trains from Tiletown and Bricksberg, going to "the North Pole"? The station interior is a bit lacking though. Sure the coffee shop is nice, and the ticket booth looks great from both sides, but I can't help feeling there should be a little chimney and a stove in place of the coffee dispenser (or maybe next to it?). The counter could also do with being beefed up, it looks a little half-hearted. The bus, though, is fabulous and should look great alongside the likes of the van from the post office.

Oooh, I'm so envious, I'd love to get my hands on 10030 (especially in bley!!) Maybe something to watch out for, the set might not be pure bley. This one was in production when the colour switch took place and I have heard stories of some boxes containing a mix of old grey and new bluish grey. If the box is one where you lift a lid off, then I imagine it's possible for the bottom half to have been rotated 180 degrees. Can't think of any sets in my own collection where this has happened, but it wouldn't surprise me if something like this happened in the factory from time to time.

You need to use mecabricks and blender. Trust me, you'll never look back. Mecabricks allows you to upload models built in LDD, or build using their dedicated editor (which is really good!). Export your model as a Collada .dae file, and then load into blender using the plugin that mecabricks offers (there's a lite version, and a paid for version with extra features for putting thumprints or scratches on the lego bricks...). All you have to do is position the camera, adjust the backdrop (there are links to free HDR lighting files), click render and wait for the result to pop out. Some example renders I did with the lite script can be found here: http://www.mecabricks.com/de/models/LVyvnmw4jl3 https://www.mecabricks.com/en/models/Z1Xjd3LP28b

You can plug the gap on 30360 by placing 2341 slope double 1x3 on the underside, and placing a combo of 28192 and 92946 on the top. It will look a little angular, but it will work. A couple of alternative techniques for cylinders: 1) Use the 75937 2x2 plate with octagonal bars, and use plates with clips to build a cylinder. It's more like 3.5 studs wide, but you can do a lot of good stuff with this technique. 2) Build a stack of 1x1 bricks with studs on 4 sides, and attach a load of 92946 along the length. I did this with my Mercury Atlas rocket, it was sturdier than I thought.

What a lovely idea! Please share photos when the collection is ready, I'd love to see it Checking wookieepedia, there are a few species starting with x, but I've never heard of them before... http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Individuals_by_species?page=4 There are also a few people with names starting g with an x (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Images_of_individuals_by_name/X) but again, most I've never heard of. The only one which is familiar is Qwi Xux, who appeared in the extended universe as the naive designer of the Death Star (she thought it was a mining platform...) For N, I agree with @obijon Nien Numb would be brilliant.

A bar looks like it would fit (and indeed, it's the only way I can see that such a connection would be possible), but LDD does not allow a bar to slide all the way through the axle joiner. I don't have real bricks to hand so I can't test if this is actually possible or not...

Hi, welcome to eurobricks! You're trying to connect a technic axle (black) into an "axle joiner" (tan?). The axle joiner is designed to connect two axles, so at the middle of the joiner there is a small ring on the inside that stops you pushing an axle any further. I think what you're trying to do is slide the joiner all the way onto the axle. In this case, you might be better using a "Pin Connector" (part number 62462 or 75535). This is a hollow tube, and would slide freely over an axle. Hope this helps!

That's beautiful! It looks so simple, so elegant, and utterly perfect. I especially like the faded black-and-white photo, that render is superb. Any chance of any instructions, or an LDD file? As @ColletArrow said, the only real improvement possible would be to add a few matching coaches, or perhaps some trucks (if I remember right, people could get cheaper tickets if they were willing to sit on top of loaded coal trucks...)

That's a fun piece, but I don't think it would have any real monetary value. Lego misprints are rare in my experience (the infamous Back to the future DeLorean with "Sheild" printed on the flux capacitor, and a slightly demented looking Daisy Duck headpiece are the only ones I can think of in my own collection). While they are great to see, I don't think I've ever heard of any collectors who go after them... it's more the kind of thing where you treasure a misprinted part if you happen to come across one.

Wow, that is fabulous. I love it when these little Easter eggs sneak into the sets.

Yep, that's sand green. Quick glance suggests 2x4, 2x2 and 2x3 bricks making up the skin. Where is this statue? Is this a LegoLand model?

Well, let's try and work it out Assuming a human being has a volume of 80,000cm^3, a 2x4 Lego brick has a volume of 1.6*3.2*0.96 = 4.6cm^3, therefore a life size statue of a human should contain around 17,400 bricks. Yoda would be 130cm tall, or 70% the height of a human. However, volume is cubic - all three dimensions (height, width and depth) reduce by 70% so total volume is down to 0.7*0.7*0.7 = 0.34, or 34% that of a human. So the number of 2x4 bricks reduces to 17400*0.34=6000 bricks. Tan 2x4 bricks are on sale in bulk on brick link for about 0.14EUR each, therefore I estimate total coast of 6000 bricks would be about 850 EUR. So expensive... but keep in mind this is an upper limit, and that if you build a large hollow structure then the number of bricks might drop significantly.

Actually, a "double sized" Yoda (130cm tall) might make things a lot easier, as everything will be bricks rather than rare plates. Lego are having a sand green renaissance, for instance look at sets 70612 and 21136. A lot of bricks (2x4, 2x2, 1x4, 1x6) have recently appeared in sand green, and in the last year or so some of the rarer plates have come back into production as well. You can buy parts direct from Lego, and for some sand green bricks it can be a lot cheaper than bricklink. For example, plate 2x2 in sand green is something like 0.10 EUR from lego or 0.25 EUR from bricklink. An alternative skin colour might be Olive Green, though this has a more limited parts palette. Ok, this is off-topic, but I'm also working on getting the parts for 7194 UCS Yoda. However, I'm trying to do a redesign using the current sand green parts selection. So far I have built the head and gone from 101 of the 2x2 corner plates and 1x1 plates (the rarest pieces as far as I know) to just 33 pieces, and am hopeful I can get it down further!

That's... ambitious! It's going to be expensive building in real bricks... I never go for models that big myself, but I would also suggest starting from the base up as @All in the Reflexes said. Maybe try and find an actual 3D model of Yoda, you could then slice into layers and draw them on graph paper so you have an outline for each layer of bricks. Don't forget to build a good support structure - I've seen large builds use a kind of mesh of 2x10 beams to form 8x8 hollow squares, making it rigid and keeping the total brick content (and weight!) low. Choose your shade of green for Yoda's head carefully - olive green is a good match, but not too many bricks around. Sand green was used on the UCS Yoda set, but it is relatively rare. Another possible method is to work at it like a sculptor. Build yourself a giant block of 1x1 bricks, then delete bricks as appropriate to reveal your sculpture of Yoda. Whatever you do, best of luck and please share work in progress pictures! Edit: Actually, just did a search - there is dedicated software for this! Never even heard of these before, and I'm not going to try any of them out myself, but some of these programs might be worth looking at: https://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/3074/is-there-a-way-to-convert-a-3d-model-into-a-lego-sculpture

No, this is the right section! This is a glitch in LDD, most of the flex parts are ok (try some of the others and see). But there are a few I've come across where if you try and flex them, they go all zig-zaggy like you've shown. I've no idea why, but I guess it's an error in how the part is modelled behind the scenes.

For Home One, I'm not sure if this would count as a UCS set or be put in a class of its own. At 7 feet long it was certainly ultimate! https://gizmodo.com/5177817/52-pound-lego-mon-calamari-star-cruiser-can-kill-darth-vader-on-impact